To continue it - sometimes that beautiful sparkly pair at the store seems right at first glance, but you realize it pinches your toes. They look great on your friend - but another pair is the one thats right for you.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, Kappa Alpha Theta exists to nurture each member throughout her college and alumna experience and to
offer a lifelong opportunity for social, intellectual, and moral growth as she meets the higher and broader demands of a mature life.

The compelling fact is the experience to be had in any of the 26 NPC groups is essentially the same. Membership is what you make of it. Many, many moons ago, a Panhellenic friend made a comment that has always resonated with me. She described another member of her chapter as being like a comfortable pair of shoes. And I started using that analogy. Stop in the shoe department of any department store and you'll see all sorts of beautiful and magnificent shoes. There are shoes that catch your eye or seem so full of exotic delights. When you try on a shoe that truly feels comfortable, you sense it. You know it will get you through all sorts of adventures. Sometimes that comfortable shoe isn't the one you first saw when you entered the department, but once you try it on you just know that it was meant for you.

I love the shoe analogy!

My daughter found the right fit on her campus, but she was a bit sad that Gamma Phi hadn't been an option and that we'd never be sisters. After we watched the Pi Phi Convention highlights video you posted, I told my daughter that it reminded me so much of Gamma Phi Conventions. Parade of flags/chapters, awards given out, cute tote bags, huge group photo, foundation room, etc. Basically, you could have changed the letters and the message was the same...lots of women filled with pride for their GLO and devoting time and energy to keep it vital. She'll have a great college experience with her sisters, and she'll have the same lifelong benefits and opportunities to serve.

Basically, you could have changed the letters and the message was the same...lots of women filled with pride for their GLO and devoting time and energy to keep it vital. She'll have a great college experience with her sisters, and she'll have the same lifelong benefits and opportunities to serve.

Exactly! And as for Cookie Shines, guests are allowed. After all, it was a guest, University of Kansas Chancellor John Fraser, who gave the celebration a name.

__________________Enjoy fraternity history? So do I. I write about it at www.fraternityhistory.com
or follow on twitter @GLOhistory

Really?! Ok, I'm going to tell her they need to have one for Parents Weekend this fall! She already told me her Cookie Shine technique...flop on the candy with your body and drag yourself backward, pulling the candy with you. Seems a bit greedy to me!

During one of Gamma Phi's first initiations at Syracuse (sometimes reported to be THE first) a lovely after-initiation feast was laid out to be enjoyed by all the sisters. While they were performing the initiation, SOMEONE (Alpha Phi? Helen M. Dodge had been asked to become an Alpha Phi but declined, and then there is always friendly panhellenic rivalry. Fraternity boys playing a prank? We'll never know!) stole everything for the banquet - except, you guessed it, peanuts and olives. So now they are the traditional food served by Gamma Phis. We even have "The Peanuts and Olive Song".

During one of Gamma Phi's first initiations at Syracuse (sometimes reported to be THE first) a lovely after-initiation feast was laid out to be enjoyed by all the sisters. While they were performing the initiation, SOMEONE (Alpha Phi? Helen M. Dodge had been asked to become an Alpha Phi but declined, and then there is always friendly panhellenic rivalry. Fraternity boys playing a prank? We'll never know!) stole everything for the banquet - except, you guessed it, peanuts and olives. So now they are the traditional food served by Gamma Phis. We even have "The Peanuts and Olive Song".

This is similar to the version we were told. According to The Legacy of Gamma Phi Beta, there are two other common myths:

Myth #2: Someone comes to visit the Alpha chapter, but the only refreshments that can be found are peanuts and olives...which are served graciously.

Myth #3: A young Alpha chapter member is assigned the duty of arranging food for a rush event. She gets busy, distracted, etc. and forgets to get the food. Right before the event, she rushes to the cupboard, but only peanuts and olives are available (which are served graciously).

The real story, as told by Founder E. Adeline Curtis and affirmed by the first pledge, Clara Worden, goes as follows. It actually reminds me of the cookie shine.

Apparently, simple buffet banquets were popular in the late 1800s. Eva Seymour (1885) invited Alpha chapter to what she termed a "chocolatetaire," in which chocolate was served in many forms. A few weeks later another member entertained the chapter. One of the featured refreshments was peanuts and olives. The guests dubbed the event a "peanutetaire." The combination so captivated the fancy or the appetite of these college women that they straightaway adopted the peanut and olive spread as one of the features of their informal gatherings.

According to the Legacy, when this "true account" was published in the Crescent in 1998, IH received quite a few e-mails from indignant members who questioned this account and defended their own chapter's version of the origin.